Many of Heye’s puzzles with cartoon themes come in triangular boxes. I know a lot of people love these boxes, but I have to say I’ve always found them quite impractical.

I have very limited space, and I could never find a good way to stack triangular boxes. Some of the puzzles always end up behind the others. I understand that different size puzzles must have different size boxes, but even puzzles with the same piece count have different boxes depending on when the puzzle was produced. For example, the boxes for 1000-piece puzzles used to be taller and “slimmer”. This, of course, makes the stacking problem worse.

I finally had enough of the boxes, and went out and bought some plastic storage boxes. Now, when I buy a puzzle in a triangular box, I cut out the image on the box, and also a piece where the name and size of the puzzle is. Then I put the pieces into the plastic box.

I realize this must seem like vandalism to many, but I need to able to store puzzles efficiently. This way, I can fit up to 20 puzzles on top of one bookshelf.

All of these puzzles also come with a poster (which I put in the box), but especially with the smaller puzzles I prefer to work with the image that was on the original box. The poster for 1000-piece puzzles is almost as big as the puzzle itself. I may come to appreciate this with age and failing eyesight, but for now, I prefer a much smaller image. For some larger puzzles, I sometimes consult the poster, but mostly I use the image from the box for them as well.

A tablet stand works well for an image cut from the box.

Despite all this, I really love Heye’s cartoon-themed puzzles, whether they come in triangular or regular boxes. I probably have more of them than any other type of puzzle.